Helping Hands, the agency that arranged all 182 adoptions between Vietnam and Ireland last year, is criticised by a draft Unicef report for a lack of transparency in charging prospective parents $11,100 (€7,757) when the “real fee” is $2,100.

The Cork-based agency, which is funded by the Health Service Executive, is accused of providing a “misleading” breakdown of fees.

The report describes the relationship between western adoption agencies and Vietnamese orphanages as unhealthy. It follows a joint Unicef/Vietnamese analysis which said that the Asian country’s adoption law had a lack of safeguards.

The criticism of Helping Hands is being taken “very seriously” by the Irish government, according to sources. Vietnam accounts for 46% of international adoptions to Ireland but an agreement between the states lapsed in May. Barry Andrews, the minister for children, is under pressure from 200 prospective Irish parents to make a new arrangement.

The report, however, calls on Vietnam to suspend all international adoptions until 2011.

It says adoptions from Vietnam are “demand-driven” and recommends a “total divorce between money given as ‘humanitarian aid’” and inter-country adoption.

“Agencies compete with each other to secure children and tend to expect that children will be ‘indicated’ to them . . . according to the amount of aid provided.”

The report’s authors said Helping Hands’ $11,100 fee includes only $2,100 for administration. The remainder is classed as “humanitarian aid”.

Helping Hands is criticised for not being “upfront” about the breakdown of its fee, which increased from $10,100 last June. The agency attributed the increase to “Vietnamese authorities” in a letter to the Adoption Board, but the report points out that Vietnamese fees are less than $200.

The agency is run by Sharon O’Driscoll, a former member of the Adoption Board. It said it had not seen the report and could not see the context of the criticisms.

The report says: “We wonder . . . whether the increase related to ‘fees’ or to ‘aid’. We feel bound to look on the content of this ‘information letter’ as being at least somewhat misleading and consequently disturbing in its implications.”

Kiernan Gildea, the board’s registrar, said it has established a review group to examine “the regulation and registration” of Helping Hands.